Ecstasy
by Razzella
Summary: It wasn't until she'd taken another hit of jet and lit up a cigarette that a wolf-whistle from below caught her attention; she looked over the side to see Mayor Hancock grinning up at her. She gave him a playful wink before taking down a few more of the raiders that hadn't even made it to the main cul-de-sac; the remainder turned tail and ran.
1. Chapter 1

Nate hadn't felt this guilty in a while. His two beautiful granddaughters were standing at the gates of Sanctuary looking worse for wear compared to the last time he had seen them. They'd been wide-eyed and excited to meet him – the polar opposite of their fathers reaction, for starters – and their platinum hair tied up in matching buns. Now, they were dressed in typical wasteland armor and their hair, while still strangely matching, was matted and looked like it hadn't come out of the ponytail they were in in weeks. And yet when he came to the gate they looked so relieved to see him, as if they didn't know it was his fault their home was blown to pieces.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Octavia practically shrieked, bolting into his arms. Evelynn took a more hesitant approach, but still pulled him into a hug when she reached him.

"How did you two find me…?" He wondered aloud, partially to himself as he stared at Octavia's glassy eyes. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out she was high on something; he was hoping it wasn't anything too heavy.

"Well," Evelynn smiled ruefully. "When we escaped the Institute, we just started asking around. It's not like we didn't know who you were; when we got to Piper she gave us the exact location in exchange for an interview." _Of course._ Nate thought, leading the two women up the hill towards his house. He made a mental note to thank his girlfriend when she finally came back to Sanctuary.

"We didn't know where else to go." Evelynn said after an awkwardly long pause, looking anywhere but him. "You're the only family we have left, and we figured with how hard you fought to find Father, you wouldn't be opposed to us wanting to be close to you." They knew him pretty well already, it seemed. Then again, they'd been in the small group of scientists on his side from the moment he stepped into the Institute. Coaching him on who was who and explaining the best approach for handling things; he was so proud of them. That pride hadn't faded at all when he'd caught sight of them running amok when the sirens went off, helping synths and children alike escape the building while simultaneously gathering as much information as they could save from the nearby terminals.

"We're not mad at you for what happened." Octavia spoke up, seemingly lost in her own head as her wide blue eyes shifted from place to place curiously. "I mean, we were, but we're okay now. It was inevitable that someone would take a shot at us eventually. Father never did understand how to be… compassionate. Even when we were kids, he was like that. Mom was the one who did a lot of the emotional footwork with us." Her grin was infectious, but he was floored by the fact they'd mentioned their mother. Inside the Institute, they'd always been very careful to tip-toe around his questions about her. Evelynn had said one time that she was a beautiful person and had died too young, but that was all he'd gotten from them about it.

As they took a seat in his renovated home, he tried to come up with something to say, but they seemed content to just be in his presence. The twins were identical in every way. From their unruly curls to their button noses and the shade of their eyes – he couldn't find any noticeable difference.

"I'm so glad you found me. I was afraid that you had stayed with Father." A dark look came across Evelynns features and she pursed her lips.

"Our mom was a ghoul," She said abruptly, folding her hands together in her lap. "Father wanted to see if he could extend the human lifespan without the exposure to radiation, but every other attempt was a resounding failure. So he decided to try the old-fashioned way." Horror crept up Nates spine, his stomach rolling in disgust.

"We were conceived and birthed in a cell they had the audacity to call a lab, and for the first twenty years of our lives, we were just experiments. Our mom loved us, don't get me wrong, but Father? I don't think he ever did. We were raised like normal children for the most part, and when we stopped aging, he finally let us join the Institute. Mom was executed." Pain erupted in his chest once more at the thought of what his son had become. There was no doubt in his mind that he had become a monster, after hearing the story of how his grandchildren came to be; he'd made the right decision.

"I'm so sorry." The words were almost cut off by the tightening of his throat as tears threatened to spill. "How old are you really?" Nate found himself asking quietly, eyeing them curiously.

"Thirty-five. We were the experiment that put him on the list of possible successors to the previous Director." Octavia spoke up then, apparently coming down from her high.

"We don't miss him." Evelynn admitted, looking distraught. "Part of me was so relieved when you blew that place up and I feel so guilty for feeling that way. He was still my father, so what does it say about me that I hated him so much?" The seemingly young girl burst into tears then and Octavia looked as surprised as he felt but pulled her into a hug anyway. Nate suddenly got why she was on the chems as her own eyes started to water; she closed them rather than cry, rocking her twin gently as she sobbed into her shoulder.

He moved to take both of them in his arms, pulling them close as their small family suffered quietly in the privacy of his home. Well, mostly private; their moment of mutual pain was interrupted by his front door bursting open to reveal Shaun, who was panting at the effort it took to sprint here from wherever he was. The girls in his arms jerked to attention, righting themselves as the young boy looked at them with wide eyes. The duo looked horrified for a moment and Nate stepped back to address his son, but before he could the ten-year-old synth tackled them into a hug.

"Tavs – Evee! You guys are okay!" They seemed tense, even as they returned the hug with a questioning look his direction.

"Dad!" Shaun turned excitedly to him then, grinning eagerly. "These are my sisters Octavia and Evelynn!" Those words broke something in the two girls, and he watched their faces crumble as more tears poured out and they pulled him back into a group hug. Father really was a sadistic bastard, it seemed. Programming the miniature version of him to call his own children his siblings – to call him his dad. Or maybe the old man had been experiencing regrets, and wanted to redeem himself with the synth Shaun; wanted his children to know the love of an actual family. None of them would ever know, now.

"Why are you crying?" The child asked, clueless, but didn't pull away as the twins held him close for several minutes, even rubbing their backs and saying things like, 'hey, it's okay now!' and 'I missed you guys!' that only seemed to make them cry harder.

"We missed you too, Shaun." Octavia righted herself first, rubbing her eyes with dirty sleeves and Nate came to the conclusion they probably hadn't had the opportunity to shower since they escaped the Institute when she looked at him with newly dirtied eyes.

"I have a working shower down the hallway, if you guys want to clean up before we discuss the technicalities of you staying with me. I'll go make you some food, okay?"


	2. Chapter 2

It was easy enough to understand. Nate was their dad; they'd also been in cryostasis, under the watchful eye of the Institute, but the evacuation notice had opened their tanks and they'd escaped with some synths that died shortly after reaching the surface. It was easier than the truth. They were the unwanted daughters of Father, and their mother had been a ghoul locked in a cell and experimented on. Octavia found she liked pretending that their lie was reality. Evelynn had found the synth she'd released – what was his name now? Danse? – and was happily telling him about his life before he'd escaped the Institute and had his memory wiped and replaced. Minus the part where they'd been madly in love, naturally.

A hot shower and new clothes had done wonders for their morale; while Octavia had celebrated finding their way home with a few mentats, Evelynn had went straight to work. Nate had been ecstatic to have a permanent doctor in Sanctuary, finally, and despite the fact that Octavia was technically an engineer; she'd been named her assistant. But she wouldn't complain about it. After all, as soon as their backstory had been explained, they'd been welcomed with cheers and hugs. The whole little community of Sanctuary was happy to have them, and they'd started working on building them their own houses that same day. Given, Octavia's was on the roof of Nates newly built home, but it was a space of her own that had stunningly good insulation.

Evelynn was built on top of the house next door, so all it took was a step outside to see one another. But most nights, Evelynn spent on Octavia's couch while the younger twin rode out whatever high tickled her fancy that evening; a few months went by before anything interesting happened. Unfortunately, it was a raider attack, and despite the huge, imposing concrete walls that surrounded their homes, they'd managed to gun down whoever was at the gate that night and slip inside. Octavia had been more than a bit excited to sit on her balcony and snipe the ones with flamethrowers as they came charging at their mostly wooden homes. In nothing but one of Nates old t-shirts and her underwear, she'd sat back and gunned down at least five raiders on her own; not even noticing the attention she had gotten from those below.

It wasn't until she'd taken another hit of jet and lit up a cigarette that a wolf-whistle from below caught her attention; she looked over the side to see Mayor Hancock grinning up at her. She gave him a playful wink before taking down a few more of the raiders that hadn't even made it to the main cul-de-sac; the remainder turned tail and ran. After a moment of debate, she put a bullet in three more for good measure, not at all bothered by the fact her gun was the only one firing.

She flicked the butt of her cigarette off the balcony, tossing her sniper rifle over her shoulder and glancing down at Hancock one more time with a smirk before waltzing into her home and plopping down in her bed. Nate would probably stress the importance of not gunning down people running in the morning, but in her personal experience in the wasteland, they only ran long enough to regroup, then they came back with a vengeance. The Institute had worked similarly.

The next morning, sure enough, Nate had a meeting and kept giving her pointed looks as he stressed how if they killed people asking for mercy or running from a fight they were no better than the raiders; Octavia resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she stealthily slipped a mentat under her tongue. He'd made a point of telling her he disapproved of her "excessive chem usage" about a month or so into her stay at Sanctuary, so she'd been trying to cut back where he could see her.

"So," Hancock waltzed up to her with his normal charisma and she tried not to grin back at him, silently offering him a cherry mentat, which he accepted curiously. "You're a pretty good shot for a popsicle."

"I guess I take after my dad." It felt so right calling Nate that, she'd found, despite it being a lie. He fit the bill for ideal wasteland dad to a T. Hancock snickered at her response, being reminded of when Nate stumbled into Goodneighbor and was promptly almost mugged.

"What flavor is this?" He changed the subject quickly when the taste of the mentat he'd accepted washed over him. It was something he'd never tasted before, and the smug look on Octavia's face told him it was probably something home-made.

"Cherry. It was hard to replicate out here, but it was pretty common in the Institute. I figured it'd be well received." Obviously, she was proud of her concoction. Her sky-blue eyes sparkled in amusement at his mild surprise.

"Don't suppose you'd be willing to share?" Humming thoughtfully, she pulled out a second tin that had a pretty red bow tied around it and held it out to him. He was pretty surprised that she handed it over so easily, with no demands for payment. When he accepted it and popped two more, he was rewarded with a dazzling smile that momentarily took his breath away.

"I'm glad you like it. Let me know if you need anymore – just, preferably not in front of dad. He's on a crusade to get me clean." Octavia snorted, walking away with a sway in her hips that made it impossible not to take note of her curves. Hancock had noticed them the night before, of course, when she'd been sniping from her balcony, but the way her jeans were clinging to her left little to the imagination. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she actually was, with her platinum curls and those bright blue eyes, but then he remembered the wink she'd given him last night and decided there was no way she wasn't aware.

Little did he know, Octavia's heart was beating a mile a minute under his gaze; the woman tried her hardest not to fold in on herself self-consciously. It was always better to be perceived as confident, even if it was blatantly untrue. She tried not to sprint to the doctor's office, settling into her desk near her sisters and feeling decidedly giddy about her short interaction with the ghoul mayor she'd heard so much about. If Evelynn noticed her particularly perky mood, she didn't say anything; instead, they both began working on making some stimpaks and hordes of painkillers that worked better than the primitive medications they had above ground.


	3. Chapter 3

Hancock traveled between Goodneighbor and Sanctuary often, Octavia realized as he passed beneath her balcony for the first time in three weeks. It was probably because the kingpin drug lord was besties with Nate, who had been leaving addictol on her doorstep anonymously. She made a point of selling it to Carla when he walked by, watching the frustration cross his features as she popped a mentat into her mouth and smiled innocently at him. It wasn't as if she had a problem – she wasn't like the junkies who clawed holes into their skins every time they couldn't get a fix. She just enjoyed the high; it helped her through the day.

"She's a feisty one, huh?" Hancock rasped with a low chuckle as Nate watched her walk towards the doctor's office to start working on more stimpaks.

"Hey, Tavs!" Shaun caught her attention and she gave him a grin as he tried to catch his breath. "Could you – maybe – if you're not busy – help me with something?" He said between pants, and she laughed at his dramatics.

"Sure, kiddo, what do you need?" She brushed her blond curls behind on ear, ignoring the curious eyes on her as she addressed the small boy.

"We found a truck!" Shaun blurted out excitedly, almost yelling at his eagerness and she suddenly understood why he was so excited.

"You were an engineer, right?! Do you think you could help us fix it? I think you'd like it more than helping Evee." His thoughtfulness made her heart swell with affection. It had been easy for her to take up the mantel of older sister with him. The kid was just so adamant about being involved with her, no matter what she was doing; it made it difficult to ignore even the simplest request.

"Well _of course_ I'll help." Shaun beamed up at Octavia before taking her hand and dragging her towards the gate. She wondered briefly if Nate knew the kid had been wandering around outside the town, but decided she wasn't really in a position to be judging anyone on how well they listened to Nate.

Within the next couple hours of her stay at Red Rocket, she'd managed to get the old machine humming with life; Sturges had almost passed out when he realized they'd actually done it. Shaun had promptly run to get Nate, Dogmeat on his heels as she and Sturges discussed whether or not it would actually move. Come to find out, the ancient machine died as soon as they tried, and they were back to figuring out how to make it get from one place to another.

"We're gonna have to find an alternate fuel source." Octavia finally decided from her place under the machine and Sturges peaked his head underneath to hear her better.

"Like what?" She thought for a minute, looking stumped even as Nate approached with Shaun rambling about how excited he was that he'd be able to ride in an actual vehicle. She wondered if she should burst his bubble and let him know how unlikely it was the vehicle would actually take them anywhere significant, since most of the roads were blocked with other broken down vehicles these days. Then again, with the amount of people joining the Minutemen, maybe they could start scraping larger areas and cleaning up the old roads.

"Water? Maybe I could come up with some kinda chem that could work like gasoline if we mixed it in water…" She was mostly talking to herself as she crawled out from under the truck, feeling sufficiently flustered when she found everyone staring at her.

"You think you can get it running with water?" Nate finally asked, and she wondered why exactly everyone was looking at her like she had grown a second head. Glancing around a bit nervously, she responded without making eye contact.

"Uh… yeah? I mean, I could rebuild the whole engine if you wanted so it would run on pure water, but if I was going to do that I may as well just scrap the whole thing and start from the beginning, y'know? But I could definitely come up with some kind of synthetic gasoline or make, like, some kind of–" Hancock cleared his throat and her mouth snapped shut audibly, making the ghoul chuckle softly as she looked back at the group she'd been rambling to. Nate was staring at her with familiar blue eyes, apparently thinking things over as his eyes shifted to the rather large vehicle they'd managed to haul up to the Red Rocket.

"Could you make Sanctuary run on water?" He asked instead, and she shifted nervously, shrugging a bit.

"It would be a challenge, but I'm sure I could figure something out. The Institute mainly ran on water before they decided the nuclear reactor was necessary." Octavia smiled as Nate nodded slowly.

"I want you and Sturges to start working on alternate ways to power the settlements. Not all of them have easy access to water, so come up with something else you think would work for those. The generators are a pain to find fuel for, and if we didn't have to worry about sending scavengers out for that specifically, it'd make life a lot easier for everyone." Shaun gave her a thumbs up from behind his dad and Octavia tried not to laugh. So maybe he was cleverer than she gave him credit for, getting her a job that was actually going to be fulfilling for her. She gave Nate a two-finger salute, laughing finally when he rolled his eyes and bid them goodbye after reminding them about the celebration tonight. Apparently Preston and Lucy Abernathy were expecting, and the appropriate response was for everyone else to drink excessively and eat a hole in their supplies.

It wasn't until the sun had already set that Sturges and Octavia ventured back to Sanctuary; they were apparently late for the party. Nate approached her almost immediately, throwing an arm around her shoulder with a glossy look in his eye and she gaped at him, almost offended when he passed her an inhaler of jet. Hancock whistled to catch her attention and winked at her; she gestured to Nate with a raised eyebrow. The ghoul grinned with a nonchalant shrug as the dark-haired man posing as her father mumbled quiet apologies for judging her that were obviously high-induced. She just laughed, taking the inhaler from him and taking a much-needed hit.

After congratulating Preston and Lucy, she plopped down beside Hancock and offered him another mentat, smirking when he once again gave her a mildly impressed look.

"Chocolate flavor. Real chocolate, not the garbage you guys have left over." He put a hand over his heart in mock offense and she giggled, leaning back in the old lawn chair with a sigh of contentment.

"You're pretty good at this, sunshine." Heat ran up the back of her neck at the pet name, and she hoped he thought her blush was just the light of the fire dancing across her face when she smiled at him.

"I'm glad you think so. I've got big dreams." Her eyes wandered over to Evelynn. Her twin was cuddled up beside Danse and she couldn't help but be a bit jealous of the soft look of affection they were giving one another.

"You plan on selling these?" Hancock's surprised voice garnered her attention and she found herself momentarily mesmerized by his pitch-black eyes. Every speckle of light seemed to reflect back at her, and it took several moments before she could force herself to look away, a bit surprised – and flustered – by her reaction.

"Someday. I figure if I can come up with enough new products, I'll be rolling in it with all the people who are looking for a new kinda high." He was impressed, she realized, when he offered her a hit of his jet that she took gratefully.

"I've got more than different flavored mentats," Octavia hummed as the world slowed down. "But I haven't tested any of that yet. Not confident enough it won't kill someone, y'know?"

"I got dibs on first taste." They shared a grin as she passed him a pack of her chocolate flavored mentats, and spent the rest of the evening and into the morning talking.


	4. Chapter 4

The next time Octavia and Hancock see one another, she's actually visiting Goodneighbor with Nate. Evelynn had outright refused to leave Sanctuary, not that anyone was surprised. She wanted nothing to do with the wasteland now that she'd found relative peace and somewhere to call home. They weren't planning on staying long, but since they were in the area, of course they swung by to say hello. Nate had backed off Octavia using chems after that night, and to say she was relieved was an understatement. Even so, when she handed him a tin of thin, yellow pills right in front of the man, Hancock was surprised.

"You called dibs." Octavia said sheepishly, one hand on her hip. "I haven't even tried it, but I'm confident it's not going to kill you, so. Let me know what you think." She'd left after that, saying something about needing some ammo and practically skipping down the staircase. Nate watched her leave with a fond smile before turning curious eyes on him, an eyebrow cocked accusingly.

"Dibs, huh? No wonder she's been so focused on getting that right." Hancock ignored the scoff of amusement, instead popping one of the thin round pills into his mouth, since he was surprisingly sober. The effect was almost immediate. There was a slow warmth that crawled up his body, settling over him like a blanket.

"Holy shit." He ran his fingers across his desk, the feeling the grain of it against his skin almost erotic. Suddenly, he was acutely aware of every fiber of his clothes rubbing against him and he wasn't positive if he liked the sensation or not, despite the shudder than ran down his spine.

"Hancock? You okay?" Nate had a halo of white around him when his friend turned to look at him. Colors were brighter, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest, but his favorite part of the experience was the strange sensation of warmth and peace he was experiencing.

"She is… a fuckin' prodigy, brother. You have to try this shit." He managed to slur out in response, making Nate cackle in amusement. The sound seemed to echo in his head for hours, and he returned to touching things, interested in his heightened sense of touch. The leather of his chair was oddly smooth, and about the time Octavia came back, he had started walking around, running curious fingers along the walls.

"Whoa." Her voice, followed by a quiet giggle, drew his attention to her. Fahrenheit was standing in the doorway behind her, eyebrow cocked at him. He spun on his heel and walked up to his favorite blond smoothskin, placing his hands on her shoulders, enjoying how soft the fabric of her shirt was.

"Sunshine, this is amazing." Against his better judgement, he ran his fingers over the exposed skin of her arm, vaguely aware of the blush coating her features, but deeply interested in the trail of goosebumps that rose in his fingers wake.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it." Octavia laughed, apparently unbothered by his proximity, and he closed his eyes as he inhaled her scent; it occurred to him if he could smell her so well, he was probably too close, but her skin was _so soft_.

"Everything feels amazing." Hancock admitted to her as she stepped forward, passing by him and picking up the tin she'd left with him curiously. The world seemed to move in slow motion as he turned to her, watching her move with his heightened senses was doing funny things to him. Realizing he was on the verge of bending her over his desk, he plopped his ass down in his chair behind said desk and refused to move, even when her own pupils blew wide and stared at him with the same curiosity he'd had about her only moments before.

"Holy shit." Nate burst out laughing at their identical reactions, making his exit well known by slamming the doors shut behind him. Hancock couldn't even bring himself to be irritated when she crawled across his desk, knocking a few things off of it as she settling her legs on either side of his chair, reaching out to touch him like he had her only moments before.

"What should we name it?" Her voice was breathless as she traced patterns into his skin, eliciting a soft groan of approval when they moved along his neck. He was positive their behavior was definitely not appropriate of casual friends, but it was difficult to remember that as she crawled into his lap, balancing herself with a leg on either side of him.

"Inappropriate?" He suggested with a chuckle, trying to ignore the extra warmth of her body so close to his; she laughed, a gentle, tinkling sound that shot heat straight to his groin.

"Ecstasy?" Hancock nodded his head in agreement, feeling himself coming down from the high even as her lips pressed against his jaw in relaxed, languid movements. Gripping her hips, probably a bit too tightly, he fought the urge to grind up into her; Octavia pressed her forehead against his shoulder with a low whimper of approval that made it extremely difficult to resist doing so. Suddenly she was laughing, leaning back to grin at him.

"I have more I need to test." Her eyebrows waggled suggestively, and they both burst into laughter despite their intimate position. Hancock let her wrap her arms around him and hold onto him through her high, even when he sobered up a good hour before she did. When she finally came down too, she was flushed pink and laughed off their strange behavior before pulling out an inhaler marked with purple paint from her jacket pocket.

"I really do have more I need to test, if you're up for it." Octavia waved it in front of him, teasing him. For a moment, Hancock was certain she was flirting with him, from the familiar twinkling in her eye and the fact she was still straddling him, but he brushed it off.

"I'll be your guinea pig anytime, sunshine." Now he waggled his nonexistent eyebrows at her and she held the inhaler to his lips, laughing at his behavior. The high was similar, and it didn't take a genius to figure out her ride of choice from the brightening of the colors in the room. This time, however, he felt distinctly disconnected from his body, as if he was floating. He watched the girl in his lap inhale and smiled fondly at the way her eyes brightened.

"You're always so much fun." She breathed, slipping from his lap and twirling around his office in a dance he didn't really understand but liked watching a bit too much. He realized he could hear Magnolia singing below and felt astonishment rock through his body, her dancing suddenly making sense as the sensual music reached them. The way she twisted her hips in rhythm with the music prompted him to join her, wrapping an arm around her waist and running on hand up the length of her arm to take her hand. He twirled her, earning a squeal of enjoyment as their chests pressed together and he made a fool of himself trying to dance with the beautiful girl in his arms.

When he woke the next morning, she was already gone, to his disappointment. But after he stumbled down the hall to his office, he smirked at the familiar inhaler and tin of yellow pills on his desk, now labeled in script as pretty as the girl who wrote it.

 _Ecstasy and OH._


	5. Chapter 5

Hancock strolled into Sanctuary feeling pretty excited. The last caravan that had travelled between Goodneighbor and Sanctuary had had about a hundred of each of his favorite blonds chems, and the stuff had sold like ammo. The best part was the people who used it excessively didn't mention any kind of addictive tendencies. They were exactly what chems should have always been: _fun_. No strings attached. He saw now why she never understood Nates problem with her using them; she'd made them without all the shit that made it addictive. When her bright blue eyes saw him from her balcony, she smiled excitedly before hurrying down to meet him, and he felt his heart splutter a bit at her eagerness to see him.

"Hancock!" Octavia threw her arms around his shoulders, and he chuckled at her display of affection, returning the gesture gently. The people around them looked on curiously, pretending not to have been when she released him and grinned up at him.

"Hey there, sunshine."


End file.
